The invention relates to the field of infrared temperature detectors, and to the field of electric kitchen apparatus using such detectors.
In certain electric kitchen apparatus such as for example ovens, particularly microwave ovens, it is known to determine by means of a contactless temperature detector, the temperature of the foodstuff to be heated.
Such a temperature detector generally comprises a plate of semiconductor material having a recess in which is disposed a sensitive element which heats up in response to the infrared radiation of a target, a thermally insulating layer 16 disposed between said sensitive element and said plate, a thermal electric element which generates a first electrical signal representative of the difference between the temperature of the target and a reference temperature, and a device which detects temperature by contact, which emits a second signal representative of the reference temperature.
The electric signals emitted by this type of detector must be processed by an electronic circuit to be usable in a simple and reliable way, for example to carry out a command acting on the operation of the apparatus.
In known apparatus of this type provided with such a detector, there have been mounted electronic cards processing the signals emanating from the detector, the electronic processing circuits being physically disassociated from said detector.
Such an arrangement however has the drawback of increasing the cost of production of the apparatus, because of the number of components to be separately mounted, hence the time necessary for these operations and the cost of production of these components.
The invention provides a remedy to this drawback, and provides a temperature detector of the previously mentioned type, integrating at least one portion of the processing electronics.
To this end, the detector according to the invention comprises electronic processing means for the signals emitted by the thermal electric element and the device which detects temperature by contact, these means being constituted by components formed in said plate of semiconductor material.
Thus, such a detector can be adapted for several types of apparatus, for example an oven as mentioned above, a deep fat fryer, a toaster, providing a very much reduced electronic processing particular to each type of apparatus.